The Meeting of Ways
by geeker
Summary: AU. Ed is transported through the gate into the demension of Naruto. Foccuses on Eds interaction in the narutoverse. the rating is for possible violent content and language. NARUTOxFMA CROSSOVER. chapter 3, subchapter 1 is up! EdxTenten pairing.
1. prologue

I'm only going to say this once. I don't own Naruto or Full Metal Alchemist. Also, just as a warning, I dont normaly write stories of any sort. So if you find anything wrong with this story, good for you, I guess it'd give you an incentive to give me some feed back.

* * *

The Meeting of Ways 

Ed was standing in front of the black gate that dante had just summond. the gate opened and hands, tens of thousands of hands, snaked their way out twords him, grasping him, pulling on him, and finaly dragging him in beyond the giant doors.

Minutes pass before Ed finaly starts to come to again. As he's slowly coming to he realizes he hears humming and thinks to himself 'whares this humming comming from?', but as quick as he heard it it was gone. He tries to open his eyes but he quicly realizes he cant, nor can he move any other part of his body...and then slips back into a pain-killer induced sleep.


	2. chapter 1: the other side of the gate

Team 7 was off at their usual training grounds when they hear this cracking, buzzing sound. Everybody looked tword whare the sound came from, including Kakashi-sensei who even put his latest copy of icha-icha paradise away, and took off in the direction of the verry unfamiliar sound. 

As they dropped out of the trees they saw this blonde boy around their age laying there. He was wearing a pair of black pants, a black shirt and a red coat with a pair of black combat boots that had metal lining the botom edges around the sole. His blonde hair came down to about the middle of his shoulder blades and it was in a tightly braided ponytail. The red jacket he was wearing looked to have a family crest on it, though nobody reconized it.

After several minutes Naruto was the one who finaly picked the boy up and was heading to the hospital with the strange boy in his arms, unconcious. As he was jumping from roof to roof on his way, Kakashi and the other members of team 7 were on their way to the Hokages tower to report on what happend.

* * *

Naruto arived at the hospital fairly quickly with the mysterious boy in his arms and takes him into the emergency room. As he gets up to the desk he says "hey! nurse lady, I think this kid needs some help or something".

The nurse looks up at him, "whose that?" she asks. he looks at her and raises his eyebrow, "well if I knew who he was I'd tell ya, but since I don't I can't. I Just found him laying on the ground all unconcious and he didn't wake up on the way here".

"Fine" she saysin a slightly anoyed tone and motions for a couple of mednins to take him from Naruto and put him on a stretcher to be taken into one of the medical bays for examination. With his task complete, he heads off tword the Hokage's office to meet up with the rest of his team and report in along with them.

Meanwhile at the Hokage's office...

Kakashi, Sauske, and Sakura are reporting in about what has occured.

"Tsunade-sama, sorry to disturb you but not long ago a verry weird event happend", the one eyed juunin started, and after a moment he told the entire storry of what occured.

"I see" she said, staring at him intently. "I suppose I better get an ANBU or two to gaurd his room and make sure he doesnt escape. Kakashi, I want you and your team to keep quiet about this".

"Yes hokage-sama" all three say at the same time. Mere seconds later Naruto bursts into the hokages office out of breath. "Sorry im late Tsunade baa-chan, had to take some kid to the hospital" he said inbetween gasps for air.

Tsunade's eye slightly twitches a couple of times before Sakura smacks him in the back of the head for talking to the hokage like that. "OWWW, damn it Sakura, that hurt!" he said while rubbing the back of his head.

"Naruto, how many times have I told you not to call me that, you disrespectfull lil twerp?" she says with a slight grin on her face. She turned to look at all three genin, "At any rate you three are dismissed, though I need to speak to your sensei" she says while motioning for the three genin to leave.

"Shizune, can you come in here for a moment please?" she says over her desk intercom, "I need you to head down to the hospital and check on our new guest that just arived. Also, I'd apreciate it if you took care of the patient yourself for me".

"yes ma'am" shizune said as she walked out the door.

"Now, Kakashi," Tsunade started "I want you to gather as much information on that symbol on that childs coat as you can. Your directly resposible for questioning him, understood?" "yes Hokage-sama" he said and then poofed off to go about his given tasks.

* * *

When Shizune got to the hospital she checked in with the nurses station and then headed down the coridor to her patients room. The ANBU gaurds saluted her and then let her into the room, closing the door behind her. She made her way over to his bed and checked his chart, humming a tune shed heard on the radio earlier that morning. She gasped when she noticed his metal arm and leg.

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**authors note: yep, a cliff hanger. please read and rate, all criticisms will be usefull. thanks.**


	3. other side of the gate pt 2

last time... 

She gasped when she noticed his metal arm and leg.

* * *

(In Eds dream scape...

Ed was wandering around centeral trying to hide from colonel Mustang, not too successfully either. As he was jumping from roof to roof and dodging in and out of allys, he was being chased by some kid about his age and height. The kid was for some reason throwing jelly beans at him and every time he turned around to look at him all he saw was a floating pile of candy. He didnt know why, but for some reason this scared him more than Colonel Mustang did.

Finaly he stoped running, turned around and yelled "what do you want with me? why wont you stop throwing things at me? leave me alone!" And with all that said he clapped his hands and started to make a blade apear on his arm, ready to charge at the floating pile of jelly beans. The jelly beans disapeared with a verry loud popping sound.)

Ed woke up, sweat dripping off his forehead, and barly was able to stifle a startled yell when he saw a woman he didn't recognize in the same room he was in. Cautiously he starts to look around the small room, trying not to draw attention to himself again. He slowly realizes that he's in a hospital room some whare. 'How'd I get here?' he thinks to himself, 'last I knew I was in front of the gate and being dragged in...I..I'm..I'M ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GATE!'

"Ahh, your up! good" Kakashi stated when he noticed Ed's eyes were open and he was looking around the room. Ed's whipped his head around when he heard the silver haired junin.

"Who're you and why didn't I see you come in when that nurse did?" Ed asked feeling slightly panicked.

"All verry good questions. To answer the first one, I'm Kakashi, and to answer the second one, I've been here the entire time" he said. "Now for you to answer a couple questions of my own. Whats your name and how'd you get here? Better yet, wait a second I'll be right back" and with that he popped out leaving a small cloud of smoke behind.

Shizune took this quick oprotunity to start a conversation with Ed about his automail. "What happend to your limbs?" she asked, partly out of curiosity. "Well this happend a few years ago" he started and then went into the whole story of his mother dying and him and his younger brother trying to bring her back. She gave him a horrified look and touched his arm, running her fingers down the length of the cool steel apendage, awe filling her to the brim.

Minutes later Kakashi and Tsunade returned, startaling the already freaked out blonde. "How'd the hell you do that?" he half yelled.

Meanwhile on the other side of town...

"Hey Sakura-chan, want to go get some lunch? How about ramen?" Naruto asked his long time pink haired crush.

"How many times do I have to tell you, NO!" she said loudly and smacked him in the head "Naruto, your anoying". She then walked off in the same direction that Sauske took off in. He watched her walk off, her figure slowly disapearing as she got to the point whare she was far enough away that her image blurred in with that of every thing else.

Slowly he Naruto made his way tword his apartment whare just across the street was his favorite place to eat in all of Konoha, Itchiraku ramen. He went in and ordered his usual 10 bowls of various flavors, a depressed look on his face.

Back at the hospital...

"So let me get this straight," Ed started "your saying that you people are ninjas? That's got to be the funniest thing I've heard all year!" he laughed. "Seriously though, how much is Mustang paying you guys to do this?"

Tsunade and Kakashi looked at each other, then back at the blonde haired boy sitting on the edge of the hospital bed and sighed. "Listen, I don't know who this Mustang guy is, but I do know that this isn't a joke and I would apreciate it if you didn't treat it as such".

Ed just looked at them, the sudden shock and realization on his face. "I guess I realy am on the other side of the gate. Damn it!" he muttered. "I'm stuck here then" he said more to himself than to the two people in the room with him.

A confused look was shared between the three. Finaly Tsunade said "gate? what gate?" a hint of concern in her voice. Ed went into the whole story about the black gate, the fight with the hermonculi, how Daunte summoned the gate and he was transported here. Then he went on about him and his brother, how he got the automail and his brothers soul was atached to armour, and then finaly he went into the story about his search.

"Well, for now I suppose you should rest. You weren't exactly in the best of shape when they found you in a clearing in the forest" Tsunade said as her and Kakashi walked out the door. She turned to one of the ANBU standing out side the door "I want another gaurd positioned out side so that they can see into the room. You know the drill. He is to be considered a high priority target, only Shizune, myself, and Kakashi are to go in or out, understood?" "Yes Hokage-sama" they said in near unisin as they saluted.

* * *

Time skip - 4 days later...

Team 7 assembled in the hokage's office, along with Ed and his ANBU escorts.

"Good, now that you're all here I can begin" Tsunade said. She directed shizune to hand out individual mission scrolls, everybody but Ed and the two ANBU received one. "Everything you need to know about your respective missions is in the scroll Shizune gave you. Dismissed" and with that everybody, except Ed, cleared out of the room.

"Yes?" Tsunade asked.

"I've been thinking, if by some chance I can't get back to whare I belong, would I be able to join your military?" Ed asked. "No disrespect your Hokageness, but I figure if I cant return home I might as well, being as I am a soldier and all."

Tsunade stared at him for what seemed like forever, but in all actuality was probably about 20 seconds. "If and when that time comes, we'll see" she finaly said with a verry small frown hidden behind her hands.

"Thank you, that consideration is all that I can ask for" and with that him and his gaurds turned and left.

-Flashback-

Naruto and Ed were walking to Ichiraku's ramen for lunch after a light spar, though you wouldn't know it by looking at Ed. ANBU followed them discretely, rooftop to rooftop.

"So, Ed, why don't you ever take that armour of yours off? It's not like you go any whare you'd need it" Naruto asked about half way to the ramen stand.

"Well, um...er, why're you so weird? And what's with all the orange?" he replied, trying to change the subject.

"Because the vilage shops wont sell me any thing else...I suppose they figure it'll make me a bigger target, besides, I like orange" Naruto said flashing his trademark grin while rubbing the back of his head. "I answered your questions, how about you answer mine".

"Well, you see, these are my arm and leg..." Ed said, trailing off because he truely didnt want to talk about it, hopping that Naruto would just drop the subject.

"Oh ok. I still think they're pretty cool though. Hey, how's that alchemy stuff work?"

Ed stopped and stared at Naruto for a second like he was asking the stupidest question in the world. Then he remembered he wasnt in his world any more and went about explaining it to him so that even a 5 year old could understand.

They eventualy got to Ichiraku's after the brief lesson taught through exaple to naruto about alchemy.

-End Flashback-

As usual as soon as Naruto left Tsunades office he went strait to his favorite training field, but unlike normal Ed was working out there. He saw how he clapped his hands and touched his arm he could have a sword of sorts that was atached to himself. He watched for about 10 minutes as Ed went through a few exercises and then touched his arm again and made the blade disapear. After that he continued on his way on to the field to train.

"Hey, shorty, want to spar?" Naruto asked.

"WHO YOU CALLIN' SHORTY!? SO SMALL YOU COULD STEP ON THEM LIKE AN ANT!? I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS BLONDIE!" Ed yelled clearly ticked off about his hight being made fun of, while Naruto rolled on the ground laughing so hard he was holding his sides. A few minutes later they both got into their stances, ready to start their spar (Ed was clearly still ticked off).

* * *

authors note:

for the love of ramen I spelled that wrong!!! its Ichiraku. also I decided to condense a couple chapters into one chapter so that its easier on time.

a thank you goes out to my single revier, TrunksgirlBlaze27. hopefully others will follow suite and leave comments for me to reflect upon. again, thank you.


	4. a sparing match and lunch

last time... 

"WHO YOU CALLIN' SHORTY!? SO SMALL YOU COULD STEP ON THEM LIKE AN ANT!? I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS BLONDIE!" Ed yelled clearly ticked off about his height being made fun of, while Naruto rolled on the ground laughing so hard he was holding his sides. A few minutes later they both got into their stances, ready to start their spar (Ed was clearly still ticked off.

* * *

For once in his life Naruto didn't rush his opponent head on like an idiot, instead he gestured with his hand and said bring it on. As he motioned for Ed to start the fight he pulled out a few shuriken and readied them behind his back.

Ed just gave him a mocking grin and clapped his hands together, starting the alchemic chain reaction in his body, and slammed his hand on the ground pulling a steal fighting spear out of the ground. Naruto just stared at him in awe as he did this.

Ed pointed his staff at Naruto and charged at him. As he was closing the gap between them, Naruto jumped into the air, front flipped and changed his position before landing on the other side of Ed.

Naruto tossed his shuriken at Ed, forcing him to change direction in mid step. as he did so he swung around, swinging his spear at the same time, and went to take Narutos legs out from under him with a sweep from it.

Naruto jumped out of the way and tossed a kunai, only to have it stick in Eds auto-mail arm, as a diversion. He hurriedly made a seal and yelled kage bunshin no jutsu. Six shadow clones appeared on the ground as the original Naruto landed with a huge grin.

Ed, being Ed, took off running straight at all of them. He attached his spear to his arm and used it as a blade to slice and jab towards Naruto. All of the Narutos used the substitution jutsu, and moved behind Ed yelling "Hidden Leaf Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique: 6,000 Years of Pain!". Moving as one, all of the clones and Naruto, put their hands in the appropriate seal (hands together with only the index and middle fingers out) and stuck them in Eds rectum causing him to go flying off and land about 100 yds away.

Naruto fell on his ass and started rolling around laughing, not stopping until Ed finally managed to bowleggedly limp back and try to kick him, only hurting himself more in the process.

"Ready to give up, or ya want to spar more?" Naruto asked with a slightly huge grin.

"you kidding? I'm just warming up! Besides, I have to repay you for doing what ever the hell it was you just did to me" Ed exclaimed, charging his opponent again. This time he stopped halfway there and clapped his hands together and then placed them on the ground, opening a giant fissure snaking its way towards Naruto.

He jumped to the side of the oncoming fissure, only to get punched in the face with Ed metal fist, and slammed into a tree.

In a tree about 30 yds from the sparing match, the ANBU assigned to watch Ed were doing just that, watching. "shouldn't we stop this?" asked the dog masked anbu. "No" was all he got for a response from his companion wearing a cat mask. they continued to watch as Ed punched Naruto, who exploded into a cloud of smoke.

Suddenly two Narutos flew out of the ground catching ed off guard with a dual uppercut, sending him into the air and backwards a few feet. Before he even had a chance to land another two Narutos punched him in the chest, slamming him to the ground. Naruto took this moment to run at Ed and kick him in the chest, sending him flying towards the base of a tree a few feet way.

Ed got up and then him and Naruto started exchanging blows, both only landing half of them due dodging and blocking. It went on like that for a few minutes until Ed finally gave up, in the form of not being able to stand for more than a few seconds, from being so worn out.

"Hey, that was fun, we should do this again later, if your not still tired" Naruto said as Ed leaned up against a tree to catch his breath.

"Are you nuts?" Ed responded. "you want me to do this again later? Maybe after lunch and a couple hour break" he said catching his breath.

"Fine, how about ramen? you do like ramen right?" Naruto asked, placing extra emphasis on the second question. Sure was all he got for a response as he helped his new friend up off the ground to his feet.

Ten minutes later they were at Ichiraku's. the two of them sat down on the stools and Naruto started to introduce Ed to Teuchi. "Hey old man, I brought some one who's never had your awesome cooking, his names Ed" Naruto loudly said.

"Nice to meet ya Ed, anyone whose a friend of my favorite customer here is a friend of mine...just don't offer to pay if ya know what's good for your wallet" Teuchi said while smiling and then laughed while shaking his hand. "So, what can I get ya, since I already know what that brat next to ya wants" he said still laughing and pointing his thumb at Naruto. "'Spose I should hive ya a menu huh?" and handed him a menu.

"Well" Ed started as he looked the menu over "I guess I'll start with a couple miso, a couple chicken and we'll see from there". With his order placed he looked at Naruto "hey, your buying right? I mean, its not like I have any money that I can use here". He got was a grin for an answer from Naruto.

"Sure!" Naruto exclaimed loudly. "So, how do you like it here so far? Konoha I mean" he asked with a concerned look.

"It's not bad, and your pretty nice...a bid odd, but nice. Just one question though, what's with all the glares people give you? I know it can't just be because of your horrible fashion sense" Ed asked.

"Well, you see, its because I used to pull allot of pranks out of boredom and so I guess that's the reason" he replied half-heartedly not wanting to talk about that subject any more. At that moment they were brought their orders, Ed looked at is two orders of miso and his two orders of chicken while Naruto looked at his order of miso, his two orders of chicken and his order of beef before they both opened their chopsticks.

They both gave a word of thanks and tore into their respective first bowls of ramen, eating in semi-comfortable silence. By the third bowl Naruto noticed that Ed was packing it away just as fast as he was, he grinned and went back to his food.

about 30 minutes and two more orders later they got up and Naruto paid for their lunch, staring with a frown into his now mostly empty gama-chan wallet. He looked at his watch and noticed it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. He glanced at Ed as they started walking in a seemingly random direction away from Ichiraku's.

"So...?" Naruto asked with a slight grin.

"So...what?" was all Ed could think of for a reply.

"So how was the ramen?" Naruto asked with a huge grin.

"It was pretty good. is that all you eat or something?" he replied.

"Only pretty good? Ichiraku's has the best ramen in all of Konoha!" Naruto exclaimed, slightly annoyed that someone would think that ramen was only 'pretty good'. "And yes, I eat more than just ramen, it just happens that ramen is my favorite food...it's just that it's the best food in the world".

Ed nervously laughed at his yelling about ramen and how it was the best food. As they were walking he got lost in thought, wondering how every one was doing back home, what they were up to, and how he missed them. "Al" he said under his breath so low nobody could here him.

"Well, I got to get home and pack. have to get up and leave bright and early in the morning, see ya!" Naruto said as he leapt up to the roof of a building and took off toward his apartment while waving behind him.

* * *


	5. Eds depressing day

Ed stood at one of the gated entrences to Konoha, waiting for Naruto and team 7 to show up so he could wish them luck on their mission and journey. Two hours went by and then it hit him, he must've been told the wrong gate to go to for some sort of security reason.He turned and glared at the unmoving, seemingly uncaring ANBU. He opened his mouth and was about to yell but closed it in defeat, knowing it would have been pointless to do so, so he settled for just glaring at them.

Figuring that standing around by the giant almost impenetrable gate was about as pointless as thinking naruto would stop at one bowl of ramen, he decided to head back to the Inn that the Hokage paid for for him to stay in.

He looked at the ANBU and simply said "I'm heading back home, come on" and he waved for them to follow him.

As he started to go down the now familiar streets his mind wondered off. His mind stopped not at the sparing match the day before, but on events 3 days before that.

-flashback-

They were at training ground 3. Neither of them had been to this one, a fact that Naruto was quick to point out. They just stood there, taking in the grounds. There was a handfull of small hills at one end of the feild, several craters that looked like they were fairly new with grass just barely starting to grow around the edges of them scattered here and there, dense woods at the oppisite side frome them, and kicking/punching posts opposite of the hills. All in all it was a fairly average training area.

Instead of his normal bright blaze orange outfit that seemed to be his standard apearal, Naruto was wearing a pair of black hevily pocketed cargo shorts that came down about mid calf, a black shirt with three diagonal orange claw marks on the front and a red swirl pattern on the back with fishnet elbow length sleaves, and of course, his standard dark blue sandles.

Being as Ed hadn't had a chance to spend or earn any money (he quickly realized that the money he did have was more worthless than a pair of tweezers being used to remove a stump), he was still wearing his black pants, black shirt, boots and red coat...though he was able to borrow a shuriken pouch and a kunai holder from Naruto.

"Hey Ed, I'm glad old lady Tsunade said you can train with me" Naruto said with a huge grin. "Dont't tell her I said that, she'll whack me in my head again and she hits hard!"

Ed just stared at him wide mouthed and bug-eyed. "you..she..what?" was all he could manage to say due to shock.

"Earth to Ed, helloooo" they hyper blonde shinobi said while franticly waving his hand in front of Ed's face.

"huh?"

"Thaught we were going to work on your accuracy with these?" Naruto said while pulling out a kunai and tossing it at one of the closer target marked trees by Ed.

"Oh, right, ok lets start then" Ed replied, still somewhat shocked at what Naruto had said.

For the next couple hours they worked on Eds accuracy with kunai and shurikan, and of course with his temper he ended up using Naruto as a moving target at one point.

-end flashback-

"Hey, you two have names?" he asked the anbu that were behind him.

"No, at least not any that you need to know" the one with the dog mask said.

"Oh, well it just seems a bit odd to me to be followed by nameless masked people. You guys do anything for fun?"

The two ANBU looked at each other for a second "if you realy feel a need to adress us by some name, you can call me kitty" the one with the cat mask said "and you can call me pup" said the one with the dog mask.

Ed sighed and thaught 'that doesnt help much, but I guess its better than nothing'. He kept walking untill he got to the Inn, looked at the door, turned around and decided he would rather have some ramen.

He arived at Ichiraku's a few minutes later and sat down on one of the barstools, ordered his bowl of ramen and waited. While he was waiting he spaced off and was startled when his bowl was placed in front of him. Sighing, he took his chopsticks out of the package and broke them apart, said a small prayer of thanks and started to eat. Then he thaught of the two ANBU with him "hey, either of you want anything?" he offered.

They looked at each other and ordered two to go each. After paying, all three of them headed back towords the Inn.

When they got back Ed headed up the flight of stairs to his room, pulled out the key in his poket, unlocked the door and went in after the the two ANBU.

The room of the Inn he was staying in was rather nice being as it was the size of a small apartment. It had a small living room area with a book case along one wall next to a window with a nice view, a tv, a couch, a small kitchen with a table that seperated it from the living room, a bathroom, and a small but comparativly decent sized bedroom with a walk-in closet.

The ANBU sat down at the little table that was in the middle of the main room and Ed headed towords the bedroom. He decided hed take a nap while the ANBU had their breakfast. Looking at the clock on the nightstand he noticed it was 11:00 a.m. Again he got lost in his thaughts, he was wondering about winry, Al, heck, even colonel Mustang! He wouldnt admit it, but he missed everybody back home especialy his brother Al.

After about half an hour of trying to go to sleep he decided to just give up, so he headed to the living room and turned on the tv. 'Why can't there be anything good on?'he thaught as he turned it back off a minute or so later. He watched the clock. '11:57'. '11:58'. '11:59'. '12:00'. 'Well, that was boring, but its even worse that that was better than what was on tv' he thaught as he got off the couch.

"Hey, I'm going for a jog" and with that he went out the door, down the stairs, out the main door, and started his jog. While jogging he passed a few places he recognized, the Hokages tower, the acadamy, and the Hokage monument. As he was jogging this green blur shot passed him and then turned around and went back tword him, slowing down to jog next to him...on his hands.

"what the hell? are you nuts? who are you?" Ed asked.

"I am Konoha's handsome green beast, Rock Lee! I see the fire of youth has inspired you also! If I can not do 30 laps around Konoha on my hands, then i must do 30 laps around Konoha doing backflips!" Lee said as if what he was doing was normal by anyones standard.

"Are you saying your doing this for fun? Or is it some sort of training?"

"Both!" Lee replied still jogging while doing a handstand. "You must be that person that Naruto found in the woods last week".

"I have a name you know! I'm Ed, and your right Lee".

"Nice to meet you Ed, are you training today also?"

"No, just bored."

"Oh. Well, if you want your welcome to jog with me, I could use the company. It'll make the time go by faster, being as I still have 10 laps to go before I start my work out."

'I was right, he's nuts'"sure, I don't have anything better to do. So, Lee, you do things like this every day?"

"You mean talk while I jog? Nope, can't say I do. So, Ed, whare are you from since I know you are not from here?"

"Ummm uhh, a place called Risenbul. Trust me, it's very, very far from here. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it" Ed replied.

"No Ed, I can not say I have ever heard of it. What is it like there?"

Ed got this far away, dreamy look in his eyes. "It's a small quiet town in the country, lots of wide open space. In my oppinion it's more beautiful that Konoha, and Konoha is a beautiful town." All of a sudden he found himself longing to get back home, now more than ever because of talking about his home town.

The look in Ed's eyes didn't escape Lee. "You miss your home huh?"

"Yes, Lee I do, I most definately do."

After that they jogged on in silence. Lee was trying to think of how Ed must feel being so far from home (alot further than he could imagine being as he didn't know Ed was from a different demension) and Ed was lost in depressing thaughts.

A few hours later they were done jogging around Konoha so Lee started his work out and Ed sat under a tree, still lost in thaught.

"Ah, Lee, I see you braught a friend with you!" an appearantly bigger version of what looked, to Ed, to be Lee yelled.

"His name is Ed Guy sensei, and he burns with the fires of youth! He was bored and decided to finish jogging with me" Lee exclaimed.

"Lee, why don't you introduce him to us?"

"Ed, this is my role-moddel, Guy-sensei!"

"Uhh, hi nice to meet ya, I'm Ed"

"Is what Lee said true?"

"yea, I had nothing better to do so I figured why not, no harm in it, right? Besides, it was only the last ten laps."

"It's true, the fires of youth burn brightly in you! Would you care to join us in our daily work out?" Guy-sensei asked with a huge smile.

"Um, no thanks, I'll just watch" Ed said, making Guy-sensei frown.

"Well, I'm proud of you any way Ed, not many are willing to jog with Lee here, doing so is an acomplishment in of itself! Join us any time you like!" Guy-sensei exclaimed while striking a good guy pose.

"Uhh, thanks I guess" he said before he caught sight of Tenten. 'She's cute, I wonder what her name is...oh well' Ed thaught when he saw her and then returned to wondering if there was anybody around that might be able to make adjustments to his automail. He lowered his head in thaught and didnt notice her walking twords him.

"Hi" Ed jumped when he heard her "I'm Tenten, your names Ed right?"

"Yep, thats me" he said, still a little startled.

"Sorry about that, I did't mean to sneak up on ya. You must've been realy deep in thaught if I startled you like that" she said apologeticly.

"It's alright. hey, you know what time it is?" 'I was wrong, she's hot' Ed thaught.

"Yea, it's around 5:00" she said after looking up at the sky. "So, did ya realy jog 10 laps with Lee?"

"Yep, sure did. Why're you guys acting like its such a big deal? I mean yea, at first he was a green blur, but then he slowed down and jogged at my pace, why?

"Oh, so it was a slow jog, ok, now I know why you say it wasn't a big deal. Well, at least some one jogged with him other than sensei. You'll probably never know how much Lee apreciated it, even if it wasn't at his normal pace. See, alot of people try to avoid Lee because they think hes a bit strange, but once ya get to know him he's a prety good guy. Well, it was nice talking to ya, nice meeting you also. Seriously though, you should take guy-sensei up on his offer. Bye" and with that she walked off to go spar with Neji, of whom Ed didn't meet.

Ed sat there grinning 'maybe I should take him up on his offer' he thaught as he watched her walk away, staring intently at the movement of her butt.

He got up and decided he should pay the Hokage a vist. As he walked away the ANBU that follow him everywhere dropped out of the tree he was under and followed him.

When he got there the dog masked ANBU teleported into the Hokages office, leaving and entering, in a puff of smoke. Tsunade called him in after she recieved a report of his movements so far today.

"What did you want to see me about?" she asked.

"It's about my arm and leg. As you know theyre not flesh and blood and i was wondering if there was anybody that was experienced with this type of work" he flatly stated.

"Why, did you, umm, injure them?"

"No, just curious being as it seems to me that I wont be able to return home any time soon. More of a precautionary thing ya know."

"Well, to be honest Ed, at this time no, I don't know of anybody with the kind of skills that would be required. Would you be able to instruct some one on how to do it?"

"No. From what I understand though, it takes the skill of a surgen, a black smith, an electrician and a mechanic, all rolled into one to do it. in a sense my arm and leg are what you would consider robotic."

"Oh. Seems like a highly specialized field."

"Yeah, it kinda is I guess."

"Well, if it helps any i can see what I can do in case something were to happen, ok?"

"Ok."

"Is that all you wanted to see me about, or were you wonder about anything else?"

"Actualy yes, there is something else. I'd like to join your military untill I can figure out how to get home. But that means I'd also nead to learn the kind of skills that your soldiers are required to have."

"Well, for starters Ed, their ninja...but I suppose their soldiers as you put it, being as ninja are used for all sorts of things, including war. I'll have to get you a custom plate made though. Anything else?"

"No ma'am."

"Ok, well, your dismissed then."

"Thank you" and with that he turned around and headed to get something for dinner and head home. 


	6. a new ninja and a new jutsu

It'd been three days since Ed's last meeting with the Hokage and he still hadn't received his headband, but on a more cheerful note as the days went by he noticed the anbu following at further distances than they were previously. He decided hed take that as a sign that he was slowly gaining their trust. 

On the border with Naruto...

As usual for team 7 every day that they were gone, Naruto would ask Sauske if he wanted to spar, he'd say no. After that he'd ask Sakura if she wanted to go on a date when they got back, she'd say no. Same went for Kakashi when Naruto would ask him to teach him a new jutsu. Every day the same rutine.

Finaly afrer 3 days of the same-ol same-ol, Naruto figured he'd work on creating a new jutsu of his own. 'Lets see, I suppose I could make a variation of the Rasengan...I know Rasengan heijin! It'd give me a sword and it'd cut through anything' he thaught. "Now how would I compress it though?" he wondered out loud.

After about half an hour of trying to make a staff from the Rassengan,he decided to ask Kakashi for a advice on making a disk shaped jutsu. Kakashi just looked at him with slight curiosity in his one visible eye, he then asked why and went into a long lecture about chakra control.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

Sigh "yes Naruto?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why border patrol?"

"Because it's something that needs to be doneit gives you experience, and because, well, that was our orders Naruto."

"Ok, so, how about it, any actual advice ya can give me?" asked Naruto trying to switch the subject quickly.

"Umm...go climb a waterfall" was his only response from his porn loving sensei. Upon hearing that, Sauske smirked and thaught 'he he, water walking and tree climbing in one, sounds fun, though I wonder why he's so concerned about a new jutsu. Oh well.' He then walked off to get some wood for the fire for later on.

Giving up on getting a strait answer from Kakashi-sensei, he decided hed go practice on the nearby waterfall. 'stupid masked pervert, all I wanted was advice' thaught naruto as he stpped onto the water and took off running at the waterfall. Naruto made it about 10 meters up the waterfall before he lost controll and dropped like a rock.

About 2 1/2 hours later Kakashi came over to check on Narutos progress with the waterfall climbing, only to see him take off at the waterfall again and make it about 17 meters up the 70 meter waterfall. 'Damn brat, I didnt expect him to be making this kind of progress. I guess I should let him know its lunch break' thaught the silver haired jonin.

Before he could say anything to his student, another 3 narutos took off up the waterfall, each one making about 5 centimeters of progress more than the previous one. This caused kakshi to actualy enter the clearing and stare in semi amazement as he saw three waves of three narutos all waiting for their respective turns at the waterfall, a small group sparring, and the original watching and working on what apeared to be the new jutsu he was wondering about.

Kakashi knew about Narutos clones, heck, everybody did. But he never had the thaught that he would actualy use them to train and build up his chakra control, let alone for chakra control and taijutsu training! Just as he was about to tell him about lunch, Naruto lost control of the jutsu he was working on and...he exploded? Kakashi just thaught 'scratch that chakracontrol, taijutsu AND ninjutsu creation!'

"Naruto, lunch" was all kakashi said and the horde of narutos vanished from sight in a big cloud of smoke, revealing the real one getting up from cloud watching while asimilating every thing from all the clones.

All he said in response was "coming Kakashi-sensei" and he pulled his knees up to his chest, shifted his weight and shot himself up in a handspring landing on his feet about a half meter from whare he was laying.

While all this was going on, Sauske and Sakura were going about patrolling the area in the pre-described manner given to them by Kakashi. They were using the standard 2 person staggered formation, going from tree to tree, Sauske in front, Sakura in back and to the left about 2 meters apart. There wasn't a hint of conversation between the two, except the occasional hand signal.

Sauske looked down at his watch, he realized it was about time they headed back and had something to eat. He motioned to Sakura that they were going to wrap it up and head back to camp for lunch, i.e, he pointed at his watch and then rubbed his stomach. He'd been up since 3 am because of gaurd duty the previous nightand hadnt had anything more than a power bar for a meal since they left town.

within less than two minutes of each other naruto and the patroll team were both at the campsite eating a quick simple lunch. Naruto had intant ramen, Kakashi stole one of Naruto's ramen cups and so he too had ramen, sauske settled for a couple power bars while Sakura decided to actualy be nice to Naruto...in exchange for a ramen cup since she was tired of power bars.

Naruto was first to break the tense silence that hung around the camp. "Hey, Sauske-teme, you want some ramen? Before you say anything yes, I realize you're not big on it but its still better than a power bar..." with out finishing what he was saying he tossed one of the cups at him. Sauske, who wasn't realy paying too much atention to the blonde, got pegged in the head with the ramen cup. After that he was understandably anoyed for the rest of lunch. "Sorry about that, thaught you were paying attention" he said rubbing the back of his head with a shocked/sheepish look on his face.

Before Sauske could say anything, Sakura punched Naruto in the side of the head hard enough for him to end up on the other side of the small camp. She was about to get up and hit him again when sauske grabed her by the wrist, effectively stopping her.

"Don't" was all he said to her before releasing her wrist.

"Ok Sauske-kun." she sat back down closer to him, glaring daggers at Naruto like they would some how materialize and fly at him for beaming her sauske-kun.

Naruto sighed saying "well, its about time for me to run my part of the patroll." He got up from whare he landed and proceded to make 12 clones. They all headed off to do what had to be done. When he and the group he created was a good distance away from the camp he had half the clones he created go off and work on making new jutsu.

He seperated from his clones and went about the boring and tedious task of running through the woods for the next 5 hours.

back in Konoha...

Ed woke up in a cold sweat for the third time in a row. It's been the same dream every night. An extremely atractive brown haired girl with the most perfect figure (in his oppinion), throwing hundreds of weapons at him, seemingly trying to kill him. A nightmare, the worst kind possible, that of a deadly beauty.

He did his best to try and shake the dream from the front of his mind, but it didn't quite work. Grumbling, he decided he should get up since he knew that after a dream like that he couldn't just go back to sleep. he looked at the clock on the night table, 12:21.

'No point in going back to sleep, damn, oh well' and with that thaught he got up and made his way to the bathroom. He watched the water swirl down the drain of the sink, cupping water on his face with his hands while still trying to tare his mind from the dream that woke him.

After he showered and changed, he decided to go for a jog, something he's become accustomed to doing every day. 'hope I run into Lee, he's usualy pretty entertaining' he thaught 'besides, his one team mate is rather hot...I wouldn't mind getting to know her better.' He smiled lecherously to himself as he headed out the door.

'List of stuff to do today: breakfast at Ichiraku's, find lee and jog with him, get weights, buy those ninja things that everybody seems to have, buy asprin' he ticked off in his head. "Damn boring town, just like any otherl arge town... hard to find people if they're wandering and Lee never sits still! Oh well, first up food" and with that mumbled statement thaught out loud Ed headed off for his morning noodles.

Ed had just finished his 4 bowls of ramen and walked out the door when 3 ANBU apeared from nowhare around him, ordering him to the Hokage's tower. Without waiting for any responce, one of the ANBU grabed Ed by his upper arm and teleported to the Hokages office.

"Ah, good, they found you. Do you know why they brought you here?"

"No ma'am, I don't. Is it about that forehead protector you said you were having made for me?"

"Partly Ed. The other reason I wanted you here was for rank placement, which means we need to asses your skills. Theres also one other thing, but that can wait till after your assesment."

Tsunade handed him his custom head band, the only diference being that his had a tiny kanji in the upper right corner for alchemist. As he put on the head band he was escorted to the exam arena for his skill assesment.

The arena was huge. The walls looked like they went up forever, even though he knew it was only like 4 or 5 stories high. The area within the walls was almost big enough to build an entire office park in, though there was only some trees, a few boulders and other miscilanious things that would most likely be on any possible battle feild encountered.

'Wow this place is huge, I cant believe this place is just for testing peoples skills' was Eds only thaught as he made his way to the center of the arena, preparing himself for what ever the task or chalange could be.

A guy with a realy bad cough came out into the stadium. "Would both partisapants please come to the middle of the arena."

The person that Ed now realized that he'd be fighting apeared in a puff of smoke on the other side of the proctor. He was wearing a brown sleeveless trenchcoat with a long sleeve black mesh shirt underneath, slightly darker brown pants with black splotches here and there with black combat boots.

"Ok, the rules are simple, you fight untill your opponent is either knocked out, dead, or gives up. Also, I may step in if I feel that the match is over. Any question? No? good!" With that said, the proctor jumped out of the way and yelled for the match to begin.

Some whare on Narutos patrol route...

Naruto was patrolling the area that he was assigned to patrol by his sensei, hoping something would happen to break him out of his boredom.'I wonder what my clones are working on and how far they've gotten, oh well, I guess I'll know later.' With that thaught he grinned almost mischiviously and continued on his patrol.

Hours later when he was done with his shift he headed back to camp to let them know of the shift change and then went back to the clearing with the waterfall to check up on his clones. When he got to the clearing he was shocked to see them all sitting around talking about this, that, and nothing realy in particular.

"Oh, hehe, hey boss" one of the clones said.

"Shit" said another.

"Hehe were screwed huh?" said a third.

"Yep" was all he said before he dispelled the group of clones. He then sat down slitely dazed from the memories of the clones that came swimming into his head afterwards. 'Hmm that sounds like a nifty technique, I think I'll try this one.'

Naruto went through the hand seals and said "Raiton: Shiden shuurai!" and a purple lightning bolt shot from his hands to a tree 20 yards or so away, splintering it to the point it looked as if there was thousands of toothpicks everywhere. "Sweet!" he exclaimed as he jumped around in extasy caused by him making a new lightning jutsu. "That was the coolest jutsu ever! I've got to show Kakashi-sensei." Moments later he was at the camp that they had made and was talking to the silver haired jonin, telling him that he made that new jutsu he was wanting help with.

"Well, let me see this jutsu then Naruto" said Kakashi as him and his hyper blonde student headed to the clearing he tried it in.

"Alright sensei, watch this!" the hyper blonde exclaimed. Once again he did the seals and yelled "Raiton: Shiden shuurai!" launching yet another purple lightning bolt at another defenceless tree.

"Naruto...I've never seen purple lightning before..." was all Kakashi could say in his amazement over his students new jutsu. All naruto could do to his reaction was scratch the back of his head and laugh at his teacher.

"Thanks sensei, hey, when are we headed back to Konoha?"

"Ummm, tomarrow actualy Naruto, why?"

"Oh, umm, no reason Kakashi-sensei" was his response before heading back to the campsite ahead of the lazy pervert.

Back in konoha...

"Ha! Now that I passed your assesment, what was that last thing you wanted to tell me?" Ed asked.

"Oh, just that now that your one of my shinobi you need to write down all your knowledge of alchemy for further research, just incase you actualy find a way back home" said Tsunade.

"Seriously? That'd take days, maybe even weeks!"

"Well, it's not like you wouldn't be getting paid for your your effort...I mean, it's not like we realy have too many scrolls on this sort of thing. Besides, if need be, now I can order you to do it" she replied with a fake sweet smile.

"Yes ma'am" Ed replied in a slightly defeated tone.

* * *

Authors note: yea, I edited this chapter some what... made it a tad longer and such.

this is my own original jutsu

raiton: Shiden shuurai (lightning release: purple lightning strike)


	7. chapter 2: the unknowing seal expert

(authors note: over 1500 hits! tenten: 1, temari: 0, winri: 0)

* * *

It'd been two days since Ed got his headband and started working on filling scrolls, and so far all he's managed to get done was 2 verry large scrolls (think the toad summoning contract size). 'Man, this is going to take forever! So far I've only covered the bare basics...the kid stuff! I need to take a break.' Getting up and stretching, he headed out the door to get a couple more scrolls to finish off the basics so he could finaly start on the more intermidiate and advanced stuff.

As he was walking down the hallway he bumped into none other than an extremely bored Naruto.

"Hey Ed, heard you passed your lil test, how was it? How'd they rank ya?"

"Eh, she made me a chunin, apearently I put on one hell of a show" he said with a small grin. Apearently that was the wrong answer to give the obnoxious, hyper blonde.

"What! That's so not fair! I've been learning to be a ninja since I was 6! And they make you a Chunin while I'm still a Genin and can kick your ass?"

"Heh, not my fault. I didn't make the rules around here" was his response to his extremely anoyed friend.

"Well at least tell me what happend, the suspense is killing me damn it!" whined Naruto.

"Sheesh, fine, alright" and then he went about telling him about the 'test'.

- Flash back -

A guy with a realy bad cough came out into the stadium. "Would both partisapants please come to the middle of the arena."

The person that Ed now realized that he'd be fighting apeared in a puff of smoke on the other side of the proctor. He was wearing a brown sleeveless trenchcoat with a long sleeve black mesh shirt underneath, slightly darker brown pants with black splotches here and there with black combat boots.

"Ok, the rules are simple, you fight untill your opponent is either knocked out, dead, or gives up. Also, I may step in if I feel that the match is over. Any question? No? good!" With that said, the proctor jumped out of the way and yelled for the match to begin.

Both people got into their respective stances and waited for the other to initiate the battle. Ed started to get anoyed with the slow circling they were doing to keep each other at a distance, so finaly he started it off. He clapped his hands together and grinned, causing the other man to look at him like he was nuts. Ed then slammed his hands on the ground causing cement spikes to rise from the ground.

The tan trench coat wearing man jumped out of the way of the wave of spikes, taking off at Ed as he landed off to the side of the spikes. Going through a series of handseals as he closed in on him, he sent a giant firball at Ed. Ed jumped out of the way and threw a kunai at the man.

"You realy think you can beat me shorty?" asked the man in the tan coat as he went through a couple seals before sending a series of fireballs at Ed. "Screw you" he replied and then dodged the fireballs, claped his hands together and ran his hand over his metal arm creating a blade out of part of the matal that is his auto-mail arm. He then charged at the tan coat wearing man and swung his arm like a sword, leaving a small gash in the mans chest as he tried to jump out of the way. Ed then jumped and sent a kick twords the mans head only to have him duck and punch him in the chest, sending him back a few feet.

Ed jumped out of the way just as the mans foot was about to connect with his head and threw several shuriken at the man. He then made a couple seals and yelled "Chigatana: karakurenai desu yaiba" as he slashed at the man, sending a crimson cresent shaped blade at the man. The trench coat wearing man jumped to avoid the attack, only to get nailed in the chest with several kunai. He then exploded, revealing a small log in his place.

Several kunai came from the direction of the trees, exploding as they hit the ground about a half meter from Ed, creating a dust cloud and effectively knocking him on his ass. 'Fuck, that hurt...now whare is that prick?' Ed thaught as he rolled backwards onto his feet, back flipping away as shuriken flew twords the spot he was previously in. As he back flipped he threw a couple kunai in the direction the shuriken came from.

'man, whare is this guy? this is nothing like any of the fights from back home!'Ed thaught as he slowly spun around searching the area. "come out you coward, fight me like a man!"

And so the man did just that, apearing beside him, with his fist in ed's stomach which efectivly knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying backwards into a nearby tree. As ed fell from the impact he claped his hands together. He hit the ground hands first, sending yet another wave of spikes tword the tan coat wearing man. The man tried to move but quickly found that not only was there spikes coming at him, he was also knee deep in the floor and the floor was solid. The spikes peirced his elbows and shoulders when he blocked them, another stoped just barely peircing the skin of his jaw.

"Heh, I'd have to say that I won, wouldn't you?" Ed said as more of a statement then a question.

"I supose so, being as im imobolized" was all the man in the tan trench said.

"Winner, Edward Elric" the proctor called out. Ed then removed the spikes from the man, saying that it was a good match, to which the other man agreed as he was being looked over by a mednin.

-end flash back-

"wow, thats awesome!" Naruto said as he clasped his hand on Eds shoulder. "I wonder, think ya could teach me that whole clap your hands and make spikes thing? I mean, it's awesome and it'd make one hell of a surprise attack!"

"Maybe, but it would take a while to learn, and besides, you'd have to learn about transmutation circles and how to use them. Now the part about doing it with out a circle though, I won't teach you...sorry."

"What? Why not?" Naruto asked some what confused.

"Forbiden. The only way to learn to do it with out a circle is...well, its the reason that it's forbiden. Thats all I'm going to say about it too. So don't ask. Well, at any rate I still need to grab a couple more scrolls and finish writing stuff down for the archive. Apearently alot of what I know would be usefull some how."

"Oh, well, see ya later then Ed!" Naruto yelled as he ran off to go work on one of the new jutsus hed came up with while on his last mission.

"Yea, yea. Later Naruto." Ed then continued off to find a couple more large scrolls so he could finish up for the day. 'I wonder what Lee is up to? Hehe I bet hes training as usual...I suppose I'll find out later.'

Several hours later Ed finaly decided to call it a day, finaly getting a quarter of the way through the third scroll. After a few minutes of putting things away he left the building and started his walk twords the tower to report on his progress.

Getting to the tower he headed up the stairs to Tsunades office, knocking on her door when he got there. After being beconed in Ed walked over to Tsunade and placed two rather large scrolls on her desk before sitting in a chair opposite of her.

"Well Ed, whats in the scrolls? I take it your your finished already?" Tsunade asked.

"Partialy Madam Hokage. The first scroll covers, in great detail, the laws of Alchemy. It also covers in verry minor detail Transmutation Circles...basicly a bare basics itroduction to them. The second covers Transmutation Circles in greater detail, including diferent types and their purposes. I'm currently working on another scroll."

"Edward, how many scrolls could you fill?" the Hokage asked.

"To be honest ma'am, I think I could fill three or four more that size. Why?"

Tsunade paled but quickly regained her composure and said "Well, I want you to work with my old team mate Jiraiya, have him look over what you've writen and see if he understands it. He's a seal expert, a pervert, but if anybody other than you can understand it, it'd be him."

"When am I to meet with him ma'am?"

She laced her fingers together in front of her with her elbows on the desk "He's most likely at the bath house right now...I want you to go there and have him come to my office. You are to go retrive him imidiately, now go."

"Yes ma'am!" and with that Ed set off to find the pervert. Ten minutes later Ed arived at the bath house, not quite sure whare this mysterious pervert Jiraiya would be. That was until he heard giggling coming from a seperation fence somewhare near by. He silently walked over to whare he heard the giggling coming from.

"Hey, pervert! You're Jiraiya right?" Ed loudly asked while cupping his hands to his mouth to make his voice a bit louder. To his pleasure, and the white haired mans displeasure, the women on the other side of the fence started shrieking. He chuckled to himself as the other man seemed to be startled and anoyed, whether it was because he let his gaurd down or because he'd drove off all the cute women, he didnt know.

Turning around, Jiraiya placed his notebook that he was writing in in one of his pockets and glared at Ed. "Brat" he started "whyd you have to go and ruin my research like that? that was realy rude you know."

Ed arched his eyebrow and said "and peeping on women isnt? By the way, I was sent to come get you by Tsunade. Something about her wanting you to look at a couple scrolls. oh, and also, im supposed to work with you on the subject pertaining to the scrolls."

"Ah, so your that brat she told me about" Jiraiya said. "Well come on, that woman has a horible temper so we better not keep her waiting too long."

list of jutsu

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)  
Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique)  
chigatana: karakurenai desu yaiba (bloody sword: crimson death blade)mine  
Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique)


	8. lunch and a demonstration

"I'm not a brat you pervert!"

"Get it right brat, I'm not a pervert, I'm a super pervert!" Jiraiya said with a lecherous grin. Ed just rolled his eyes at his antics 'great, hes worse than col. Mustang when he talks about mini-skirts and becoming fuhrer'. Ten minutes later they arived at the Hokage tower and went strait up to Tsunades office.

"Sorry for taking so long madam Hokage, but the old pervert held me up." Ed stated before Tsunade could say anything. Jiraiya, being Jiraiya, made an ass out of himself and was punched through the wall out into the hallway. after several minutes of waiting, Jiraiya returned to the land of the waking and limped back into the office holding his jaw.

"ok, now that thats covered, we can get this meeting started" Tsunade started while glaring at the white haired senin. Noticing the glare, Jiraiya put a silencing jutsu on the room so nobody could listen in on them. "Thank you, Jiraiya, now, whare was I? Oh yea, Jiraiya, I want you to work with Ed...take him under your wing and teach him about seals. Ed, you are to share all information you have on alchemic circles with Jiraiya." with that said she tossed one of the two scrolls Ed had braught to her office no more than an hour ago to said super pervert.

Jiraiya opened one of the scrolls and noticed a verry basic circle at the top, with a rather lengthy explenation as to how it worked and what it was for. He lifted his eyes from the scroll and looked at ed, shock clearly evident in his expresion. He then looked at Tsunade, then back the scroll over to ed and back to the scroll once again, all the while with the same look on his face.

"Tsunade, do you know what this kid has wirten down?" Jiraiya asked, the expresion of a kid with a 100 dollars in a candy store still on his face. " Its nothing short of revelutionary! Why, I bet this brat wouldnt even need to learn about seals from me, hell, this is almost a wet dream in the world of seals!" he exclaimed. "Of course his seals or circles as he calls them, are nothing normal, Brat i'm curious, is this everything you know?"

Ed looked at Tsunade and she nodded her head for him to go ahead with what ever he was going to say. "No. I'm still filling another scroll at the moment."

"Well, it looks like you two are going to be quite close...have fun." and with that Tsunade dismissed them from her office and got back to acting like she was filling out paper work.

Jiraiya and Ed were walking twords the ramen stand that Naruto normaly frequents, Of course neither of the two were aware that said blonde was seemingly following them. After several minutes of being followed, Jiraiya finaly notced and elbowed Ed, telling him not to look back because he didnt want to tip off the person following them. He sudenly grabed ahold of Ed and they diapeared in a swirl of leaves, reapearing in front of Ichirakus.

The two went inside the small ramen stand, sat down, ordered and started talking about work. Moments later team Gai walked in, neither group noticing the other until Lee's rather loud outburst about youthfulness when he saw Ed. Ed and Jiraiya both winced and Ed greeted them "Hey Lee, Ten-Ten, um, shiney eyes...whats your name again?" Jiraiya chuckled at the indirect insult to the Hyuuga prodigy.

"Hyuuga Neji"

"Is Hyuuga your first name or last? if its your first name I feel sorry for ya...kidding, nice seeing ya again neji." Jiraiya at this point was barely keeping his laughter below a snicker due to Ed's antics, while Lee laughed in all his "youthfull" glory and Ten-Ten was barely keeping a strait face.

"Hn."

"so, uh, Lee, ten-ten, whats been goin on? Havent seen you two in a few days. Anything interesting happen?"

"Eh, not realy, just training with mister entusiasm and and my loud green clad friend" she pointed her thumb at neji and then lee. "What about you Ed?"

"ummm, met this old peeping tom and..."

"I was conducting research, ya stubid brat!" Jiraiya protested after whacking him on the head.

"what ever... found out I have to work with him, took this test of sorts and became a chunin, uh, not much else realy."

"YOSH! EDS FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY GAI SENSEI!" and thats whare everyone started to tune out the green clad duo.

"Your a chunin?!" tenten yelled excitedly "awesome...but, why aren't you wearing the flack vest?"

Ed grinned as he said "doesnt go with the look." Ten-Ten giggled at this.

Jiraiya looked out the window and saw naruto heading twords the ramen stand and then he looked over at Ed and grinned mischiviously. "Ok brat, quit flirting we have to go" and with that Jiraiya grabed Ed by the back of his collar on his coat and drug him behind as he left. About a block away he stopped dragging him, turned his head back and told Ed to follow him.

the two of them ended up in a small random clearing of the forest, about a mile or two away from Konoha. "Ok, show me one of those circles you drew up, any of them, doesn't matter what one" Jiraiya said with a small line of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth like he was doing 'research'.

Ed picked up a stick and drew one of the most basic circles in the dirt, he then went over to a downed tree and chopped himself a log to use. He placed the log in the center of the circle and placed his hands on the edge of said circle. There was a small puff of smoke and when the smoke cleared there was a statue the size of the log flipping off Jiraiya. "Happy?" Ed asked.

"Thats just wrong! but still, thats amazing kid!" Jiraiya said while jumping for joy. Ed moved the statue from the circle and asked if he wanted to try. He then went and made another log as Jiraiya was making his own copy of the circle. Jiraiya then placed the log in the center of the circle that he made and did the same thing as Ed, but produced a wooden statue of a naked Tsunade. "Boy, thats simply amazing!" Jiraiya praised, drool forming at the corner of his mouth at the statue.

Ed went about explaining to Jiraiya how the circles work and the laws governing their use, then said that the rest could be learned from the scrolls he was making at Tsunades request. After a few hours of going back and forth explaining diferent properties of circles and seals they both came to the same conclusion, they are both masters of their individual art, with Ed having some experience with seals because of his brother. 


	9. an eventful day

It'd been a week since Ed started colaborating with Jiraiya concerning alchemic circles and sealing jutsus. It'd also been a week since Jiraiya figured out what buttons to push to tick the blonde off. So far they had both come to the agreement that they were both masters of their respective arts, but thats not to say they hadn't learned anything from the other. Far from it.

Ed had completed his scroll on blood seals and handed it to Jiraiya, who recognized it as the basics for sealing jusus. "Hey, pip-squeek, you realize the only thing seperating the alchemic blood seals of yours and seals is the lack of chakra and handsigns, right?"

"Who're you calling a pip-squeek you old pervert?"

"Get it straight runt, I'm not a pervert, I'm a super pervert!" Jiraiya grinned.

"Yea yea, I know, seriously though, thats the main difference?" Ed replied with an arched eyebrow,

"Yep, and I'm willing to bet that if you added chakra to any of those blood seals that you'd rival me in sealing jutsu. Its only a guess though."

"And I suppose the fact that the blood seals I know are completely foreign is part of it, right?" Ed smirked.

"You nailed it on the head brat. At any rate, its lunch time, maybe you should go find that brown haired beauty that you seem so interested in. besides, I need a break from you. You're too much like naruto."

"Whats that supposed to mean ya old pervert?"

"See, thats what I'm talking about. No respect."

"Oh, let me guess, a person who openly calls themselves a super pervert deserves the utmost respect, right? HA!" Ed mocked.

"Shut up brat!"

Ed left the modest sized room and headed twords Ichiraku's for his lunch, while Jiraiya went to his favorite hole in the fence at the hot springs.

Ed was deep in thaught as he was walking twords his destination, his thaughts mostly centered around all the people he'd been forced to leave behind. His thaughts varried from trying to figure out how to get back to how everyone was doing and what all they'd been up to and how they were doing. He was so lost in thaught that he nearly passed up his destination.

Ed looked inside and noticed that the place was fairly empty, especialy for this time of day. He walked in and sat down at the counter and waited for his order to be taken. Minutes later Ed was enjoying a steaming bowl of miso-beef ramen when team Gai walked in. 'so much for a quet lunch oh well, at least I'll get to see the best sight in this town' Ed thaught as he sighed and turned slightly red.

"Ah, good afternoon Edward" said Gai surprisingly not yelling.

"YES, GOOD AFTERNOON MY YOUTHFULL FRIEND" said Lee in his normal yell.

"Afternoon TenTen, Lee, um...Neji, right? Hows goes the training?

"YOSH, MY SPIRIT OF YOUTH IS BURNING SO BRIGHT GAI-SENSEI DECIDED TO TEACH ME A NEW TECHNIQUE!"

"Thats great Lee! hey, I'll jog with ya tomarrow morning, I've just been so busy working with the pervert that I've barely had anytime to do anything other than sleep."

Lee punched his fist into the air as a response being as there was now food in his mouth.

"So, uh, how ya been TenTen? Ed asked with a slight blush.

"I've been good, got alot of moving target practice today. Um, how about you Ed?

"Eh, I've been working with the legendary pervert. You know, he isn't too bad once you get him to stop peeping at the hot springs...by the way, you might want to stay away from the hot springs, other wise you might end up in one of his perv novels."

"I'll do that, thanks for the warning Ed" replied Tenten.

"Hey, TenTen...um, your parents run a weapons shop right?"

"Yea, in fact they make all of them on site, why?"

"Uh, no reason. hey, I'll stop by there some time, maybe get a custom peice made. well, I've got to go. see ya around."

"oh, well, ok. See ya Ed."

Ed stood up, paid for his ramen (with enough change left to cover TenTens lunch and a note on one of the bills directing as such) and left. Now his thaughts were revolving around a certain brown eyed, brown haired beauty as he was walking. He looked at his watch and noticed it was almost 2:30 in the afternoon and figured itd probably be best to pick up the pace and get back to work as soon as possible.

a couple hours later he was done for the day and figured he'd pay the Hokage a visit. When he got there he went up the stairs, knocked on the office door and went in.

"Ah, good, I was hoping youd come by today Ed. Truth be told, I was about to have one of my assistants go and get you. Hows the scrolls coming allong?"

"Well madam Hokage, I finished the one on blood seals and had Jiraiya look at it. he said that the blood seals were similar to seals from here, the only diference he could find was the lack of chakra infusion." he said and handed Tsunade said scroll. "Madam hokage, how trust worthy is TenTens parents shop? More specificly what is the quality of the metals and the craftmanship?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was going to have them look at my arm and posibly have them make an adjustment or two."

"Why that specific shop?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, um... uh... because its the, uh only shop I know of" Ed managed to say with a blush that could give Hinata a run for her money.

"Awwww, some one have a crush?" Tsunade teased, Ed just glared at her. "At any rate Ed I'll have one of my assistants go check the place out." She pressed a button on her intercom and called in one of her chunin assistants. "Iruka, go to the Dancing Dragon shop and tell them to expect Mr. Elric and myself some time in the next few hours. Dismissed."

"Hai, madam Hokage!"

"Anything else I do for ya Ed?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright, well, dismissed, I'll send some one for you later."

"Thank you ma'am."

As ed was heading out of the building he passed team 7 heading in to get another mission. They breifly exchanged pleasantries as they passed each other, continueing in their respective directions. Ed figured he might as well head home and take a breif nap before he was sent for.

When Ed got home he kicked off his boots and headed for his room, grabbed a change of clothes that were extremely similar to the ones he was wearing and headed in to take a shower. 20 minutes later Ed came out with a towel around his waist and headed back to his room, got dressed and laid down to take his cat nap.

About five hours later Ed was woken up by some one knocking at the door. He got up and and yelled at the person knocking "Sheesh, hold your horses. I'm coming, I'm coming. It's not like I was asleep or anything!" He got to the door and there stood Iruka, or at least someone fitting his discription given to him by Naruto. Ed got on his jacket and headed tword the door, put on his boots and stepped out, locking it behind him.

"Took ya long enough, I've been pounding on your door for the last 6 minutes!" exclaimed Iruka.

"Yea, well you interupted my nap so were even" replied the blonde as he stuck his tounge out at the older chunin.

Iruka rolled his eyes at Ed's antics and led him in the direction of the shop that the hokage was waiting at. 10 minutes later they arived at the shop and went in, even though it had a closed sign in the window.

"Ah good, your here" TenTen's father greeted. "what can I do for you?"

"A couple things actualy" Ed replied. "First though could you tell me if youd be able to make something with the same properties as my watch?" Ed then handed him his watch to examin.

"Hmmm, well, I'd have to take it apart and then I'd have to test what type of metal this is. But yea, I should be able to once I know what I'm working with."

"Second, would you be able to look at my arm and leg for me and tell me if you'd be able to fix them, should they get, er, broken?"

"Do I look like a mednin to you kid?" he replied sarcasticly.

Tsunade chose this time to speek up. "Well, he is a rather special case, what I'm about to tell you is an 's'class secret. or better than tell you, Ed, show him your arm and leg." Ed took off his jacket to reveal his automail arm and then rolled up his pant leg and showed him his leg. "You see, that is why we came here, a mednin wouldn't be able to repair his arm or leg should they be damaged."

The man just stared in awe at Ed's metalic apendages, examining them carfuly. "To tell the truth Madam Hokage, I've never seen anything remotely like this, hell I dont even know how he makes them move. I mean sure, I'd probably be able to make something similar, but to atatch it? I would think itd take both me and a mednin of your caliber to be able to even attempt such a thing! and even if it were to be atatched, itd probably be excruciatingly painful."

"It is. Believe me, it is" Ed chimed in. "In fact, no matter how prepared you are for it, its the most painfull thing you can ever experience, and the pain is always horible, no matter how many times you get them replaced. Each nerve is atached individualy and thats what allows me to move it, along with ball perrings and neumatics of course."

Every one in the rooms jaw dropped to the floor by the time he was done talking.

"Hey, um, if you can figure out if you can make something with the same properties as my watch, I'll bring you a design for something I would like to have made."

"Um, yea, sure, give me a few hours and I'll get back to you on it. I think I need to go lay down."

Tsunade had one of her ANBU entourage stay and make sure nobody could get in with out either orders or residing in the upstairs section of the building. Her, Ed and Iruka headed back twords the main part of town where the business district and the hokage tower were. After a few minutes Ed seperated from them, wishing them a good evening and headed back to his place to wait.

45 minutes later the ANBU showed up at Eds apartment saying to come with him. Ed started to get pissed about his dinner being interupted, but remembered the reason that the ANBU that was left at the shop would show up: the shop owner was done looking at and anylizing his watch. Quickly Ed finished his simple meal of rice and steamed vegetables with tyriaki beef and left with the ANBU. they arived back at the shop a couple minutes later thanks to sunshin no jutsu. 


	10. an interesting night

Ed opened the door and walked in, the ANBU just stood gaurd outside the shop's door as a deterent to any one that might come to the seemingly closed shop. Inside Ed was greeted once again by the shop owner, who directed him to the back of the shop whare all of the work was done and was handed back his watch.  
"Well?" aksed Ed. 

"I think could make that metal blend, though it is a bit weird with some of the extremely rare metals it composed of. It'd probably take me a couple months just to get enough of the rarer metals to even make a kunai with though" replied Ren-Ten.

"I thaught that much. Ok, and what about the metal of my arm and leg?"

"That'd be alot easier. it's basicly a light steel alloy of sorts, though I've never seen it, I should be able to make it with a few tries. As for making it into a working limb, I wouldnt even know whare to begin. But I think I could beable to do it, given enough time and trys."

"Good enough for me" Ed stated, shaking the mans hand before turning around to leave. Ren-Ten put his hand on Eds shoulder to momentarily halt him and get him to turn around. "Something I can help you with?" Ed asked looking back over his shoulder instead of turning around.

Ren-Ten looked at him for a minute, as if deep in thaught. "What was it you wanted me to make you?" he finaly asked.

Ed grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head for a second. "Oh, yea, hehehe, I was going to ask of you could make a glove of sorts. But I figured that since it'll be a while till yourable to have the amount of metal it'd require I'd just wait."

"Oh. Ok."

"Well, see ya later, it was nice meeting you." Ed stepped out the door and informed the ANBU that he was done there. The ANBU then disapeared, leaving Ed to walk home alone. As Ed walked he noticed most places were closed, which meant he probably wouldnt be stopping anywhare. He stopped when he noticed that the book store was still open and would continue to be open for another half hour. Thinking for a couple seconds he then went in, intent on finding a book on chakra manipulation. Ed walked up and down the aisles for 20 minutes untill he found a couple books that he thaught showed promise. The first one was chakra manipulation for dummies, the other was seals for beginners. He purchased both books and left, intent on going home and reading them and then practicing what he had read.

On his way home he ran into the one person he didn't realy want to see at the moment, Jiraiya. Said man didnt even stop for pleasantries, he just grabbed Ed by the wrist and kept going. Several blocks later they ducked into an ally and then jumped to the nearest roof and hid behind a bilboard. Ed finaly got a good look at Jiraiya and saw the reason he was running...a hand print that was eriely the same size and shape of Tsunade's hand. He then noticed the several lumps that had been forming on the self proclaimed super perverts head.

"Let me guess, you tried to peep on the Hokage huh?" Ed asked in a tone that said 'busted'.

"Hehehe, howd ya know?" Jiraiya asked back.

"Call it a lucky guess" Ed replied, rolling his eyes.

Jiraiya then noticed the bag that Ed had with him, seemingly atatched to the back of the shoulder of his coat. "Whats in the bag brat?" Jiraiya asked, patialy out of curiosity and partialy to change the subject.

"Just a couple of books I just got at a shop before you latched onto me. Why?"

"Eh, no reason realy, curiosity my boy, curiosity! At any rate I'll be back in a few days, dont have too much fun" and with that Jiraiya leaped off the roof muttering to himself.

When he got home he fixed himself a small dinner and sat down to read as he ate. He picked up chakra manipulation for dummies and began to read. As he read he started to gain a new respect for the ninjas around him, realizing the reason that they started learning such things so young. It reminded him of when he was a kid and first started learning alchemy. After reading the thourogh explenation of what chakra was and what the two components of it was he got to a visualization technique.

He started practicing the technique, picturing his chakra as a ball ruffly the size of a bowling ball. He then touched it, like it was something solid, moving a line of it to his hands. he opened his eyes and saw his hands covered in a steel blue mist like substance. 'YES! I can already do this...sure glad I got this book. So this is what chakra feels like, kinda tickles' he thaught as he examined his hands. He then stopped the visualization technique and went back to reading, only this time he he picked up the other book, seals for beginners.

The first chapter was on non-leathal seals i.e flash and smoke screen tags. First he tried the smoke screen tag seal, needless to say he ended up ouside coughing his head off. 'Fuck that was alot of smoke, better not do any more tags of any sort in the house...at least not trying them out any way' was his thaughts as he went outside caughing and hacking. To the observer it would've looked like Ed just started laughing hystericly for no reason. After going back in and opening all the windows so his place could air out, he headed for one of the training feilds. When he got there he wrote out the seal for the explosive tag and ignited it, throwing it and jumping away so he wouldnt get blown up. he watched as it left a good sized crater in its wake. 'Damn that was cool!' he thaught as he headed back home to do some more reading and then get some sleep.


	11. chapter 3: a reason to stay

It'd been 3 days since Ed was dragged around by Jiraiya, which gave him 2 days to complete the scroll he was working on. It also gave him time to go back to the weapons shop and have a pair of regular gloves modified with thin flint pads on the thumb, index, and middle finger of both hands. He then added the fire manipulation circle to them himself. He then decided that theyd be the perfect gift to give Ten-Ten for all the help shes unknowingly given him, of course he'd still have to show her how to use them...which, in his opinion, was a gift in of itself.

Ed then decided that he was bored and so he headed off to the hot springs, whare he knew Jiraiya would be "conducting research" as he called it. When he got there he snuck up behind Jiraiya and said in a loud whisper, while also looking through the same hole real quick, calling him a pervert. Startled, Jiraiya turned around so quick that he tripped over his foot and fell backwards through the fence. Needless to say, Jiraiya's day quickly went down hill after that.

"what'd you go and spoil such good research for brat?" asked a rather bruised, bloody and not to mention a completely angry Jiraiya in a tone that said it damn well better be a good reason.

"I was bored and figured you should come with me to the Hokage's office." replied Ed matter of factly.

"Damn it, alright. I was supposed to be looking for you any way, something about teaching you some basics or something. well, come on, lets go." Ed just stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock. clearing his head he caught up with Jiraiya and then made his way to the Hokage's office.

-time skip: 2 hours later-

'A mission to the land of grass. hmm, whare the hell is that?' Ed thaught as he headed twords his apartment, leaving the Hokages office behind. on his way back to his place, he decided to take a little detour...one that landed him at a suply shop. specificly the one ran by ten-tens parents.'Well, at least I can give her the gloves' he thaught as he opened the door and walked in, causing the bell above the door to ring.

The main shop area was empty, the only signs of life in the shop came in the form of a rather beautifull voice in the back room saying they'd be there shortly. Ed decided to browse around a while when he heard footsteps comming up behind him and shortly afte that his world went black.

"Guess who" said a rather beautifull voice that was quite unmistakable to his ears.

"Hey TenTen, whats up?"

"Oh, not much realy. Training, lots and lots of training."

"Oh? Well what if I told you i had some thing new for you to train with?"

"Realy?" she squealed, sounding like a fan girl who just spotted the object of their desire. "Showmeshowmeshowme!!"

Ed pulled out a pair of gloves from his inside pocket and showed them to her. "Your going to love these Tenten! they're called Ignition gloves. granted theyre a cruder version of the ones from back home" at this point he got a tad teary eyed, "but they'll do the job just the same. here, theyre for you anyway, made them myself." He then handed her the gloves telling her to try them on.

"Umm, how do they work?" she asked.

"well, first off, lets go to the closest training ground. practicing indoors with these could leave ya homeless and shopless." They left the shop after tenten told her father she was going out to practice with a new weapon, which he completly understood being as she was always practicing with new weapons. after a few minutes they arived at training ground 13.

"Ok tenten, to use these gloves all you have to do is point whare you want the fire ball to apear as you snap your fingers, like this." Ed said while doing the general motions without the gloves on. "give it a try" Ed coached.

Tenten nodded and then did as he said, with a huge explosion 40 meters away as the result. "I thaught you said it would be a fire ball! that was an explosion, not a fireball!" she screamed at him.

"I could have sworn i said fire-bomb, oh well. now you see why i said to practice out side" Ed replied, scratching the side of his head and a huge grin on his face.

"You know, your terrible sometimes" she said, a grin spreading from ear to ear. Ed humpffed at her in mock anoyance. "So whyd you give me two of them?"

"Oh, that, well the colonel always kept one hand in his pocket and the other one out in a fight. he said it was so his oponents would underestimate him and not judge the situation accurately. basicly its a trump card. and with a pair of gloves that makes it so you can obliterate 20-30 people at a time, a trump card like that is some thing that you need."

TenTen was all stary eyed after finding out the kind of damage she could do with her new gloves. "Wow! i never expected some thing like that...but, um Ed, whose the colonel?"

"My boss from whare i came from, before i ended up here" he stated in a tone that screamed 'were changing the subject now, and thats that'. 


	12. Ed's first mission

Authors notes: I'd like to anser a couple questions before I start this section of the chapter.

grumpywinter: 1. Ed is in his late teens in this story, along with members of teams 7,8,10 and team gai (though team gai is slightly older because of them being an older class). 2. neither. It's in my own little world. 3. Ed/TenTen. possibly others, though i doubt it.

Emron The Dragon King: Ya know, thats a pretty good idea, I could have gone that route too, in fact I still might. But at this point Ed doesnt know about the sand siblings. key word yet.

over 7000 hits!

ok. on with the story!  
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The sun was shining, the birds were singing and Ed was sleeping...emphasis on was. The sun was directly in his eyes and the birds were off key, causing him to wake up in a rather poor mood. After about 10 minutes of futiley trying to go back to sleep, Ed threw his legs off the side of the bed as he sat up and yawned. Stretching, he got out of bed and headed for the bathroom, intent on a shower. 'Man, what a night. who knew Naruto could drink so much?' was Ed's only thaught as he hopped in the shower and turned on the water.

-mean while at Naruto's-

Naruto just broke his 6th clock of the week. he took his fist, smashed it against the clock and then threw it against the far wall. Needless to say, he now needed a new clock. Cussing, Naruto got up out of bed, placed his feet on the cold wooden floor and trudged to the bathroom as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Making his way to the shower only one thaught went through Naruto's head 'damn, he almost beat me...ugh, my head.'

-An hour and half later-

Ed stepped out of his government issued apartment's door in a pair of black cargo-esque pants with red medical tape securing the cuff to his leg, a black sleaveless chinese style shirt with his red thrench-coat over it. On his right leg a kunai pouch was strapped to his thigh and on his belt directly above the back of his hip was his utility pouch, topping it all off with his usual steal toed boots. Walking down the steps in the hallway Ed looked out the small window, noticed his orange obsessed freind heading his way and sighed. It was just too damn early to deal with him yet. He made his way down the stairs and to the exit, opend the door and was greeted by Naruto.

"Mornin Ed. Wanna spar?"

"Can't, have to go see the Hokage for somethin. Maybe next time."

"That's all right, I was thinking about headin' there any way!" replied Naruto as they headed in the direction of the Hokage's tower. The walk there was unusualy quiet, considering who he was walking with. After a couple minutes of waiting in the loby right outside the ofice, they went right in. Ed stood at perfect attention while Naruto looked at him like he thaught he saw lee.

"Ah, Ed, right on time." The Hokage looked at Naruto and instead of explaining the mission told Ed to be at the West gate by 9 A.M. tomarrow. "Ed, youll be working with Anko, shell tell you everything you need for the mission. Dismissed."

"Uh, Ma'am, how will i be able to tell its her?" Ed asked, letting his curiosity get the best of him.

"She'll be eating dango and if you show up late shell throw a kunai at you. that help?" she asked, holding back a smirk. Eds eyes took on this scared rabbit look for a second before he bowed and left her office. Once him and Naruto left the tower they headed strait to Ichiraku's. When they got there Ed ordered his usual two bowls of miso beef with a glass of sake.

"Hey, Naruto, you know anything about this Anko person?" Ed asked inbetween bites.

"Yeah, she was the seconed examiner for my first chunin exams. she likes dango...umm...shes kind of nuts. She has purpleish black hair and wears an outfit that gave me the idea for my sexy jutsu." Replied Naruto with a thaughtfull look.

Ed put his money on the counter and waved to Naruto. "Thanks for info. Later." And with that Ed walked out the door, heading for Gai's training field.

-Twenty minutes later-

Ed walked on to the field and watched Lee and Neji spar for a few minutes before making his presence known. When he got up to the group he placed his hand on TenTen's shoulder, causing her to let out a startled squeek. "Don't do that Ed. Its not good to sneak up on a ninja like that! sheesh!" TenTen warned.

"Hehe, sorry. So, what you guys been up to lately?" he asked.

"YOSH! WE HAVE BEEN TRAINING IN OUR SPRING TIME OF YOUTH ED!" Answered Lee.

"Uh, right. So, Neji, want to spar?"

"Hn" was his usual reply as he slipped in to his familys basic taijutsu stance.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ed quiped as he took his stance.

They both stood there looking at each other, sizing the other up, neither one willing to make the first move. After about thirty seconds of staring at each other, Ed's patiance finaly sliped and he took off running at neji and clapped his hands. Neji just stood there, waiting for ed to get a bit closer. Ed slid his left hand across his right arm, creating a blade. He then slashed at neji who bent backwards and turned to the side. He then came forward to hit ed in the chest but Ed blocked with his right arm.

Ed went to plant his left foot in Nejis gut but he blocked it and struck Ed in the side of the face with a back fist. He then kicked Ed in the chest and sent him flying in to a tree 20 yards away. Ed slowly slood up and while dooing so he clapped his hands together and remobed the blade from his arm, making it disapear back into it. He then looked at niji and smirked as he clapped his hands again and took off running at him. Neji got into the stance to do a kaiten but stopped when he realized he was in a giant metal sphere. Neji started kicking at one of the metal walls demanding to be let out this instant. the entire fight took about 3 minutes.

Ed walked up to the metal dome and knocked on it like a fish tank. "Hey, are you saying I win?" he then smirked after saying that, knowing he just bruised Nejis pride.

"Yes, now get me out of this damn thing!" he yelled. Ed then clapped his hands and pressed them to it, making it recede back into the ground and devide back up into its base components. Ed instantly knew the usualy stoic guy was pissed being as he didnt even nod to the victory.

'Guess hes clostraphobic.' Ed thaught as he turned to talk to tenten. "Hey, TenTen, had a chance to practice with your gloves?"

"Eh..um...no, not realy." she sheepishly responded.

"Have you at least shown it to them, I know lee would get a kick out of its 'youthfullnes'.

'Ohh, crap. I forgot he hangs out with lee sometimes.'

"TENTEN, YOU MUST SHOW US THIS MOST YOUTHFULL THING YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR GLOVES!" exuberently yelled lee with Gai-sensei vigously nodding his head in agreement with lee.

Tenten moved a little ways away from the group and started muttering something about blondes that dont know how to keep their mouths shut. Shited her had directly out in front of her, fingers pointing down. she brought her fingers closer together and snaped, directing the snap in the direction in front of her, a red spark ignighting at the end of her fingertips. about forty some yards away there was a giant explosion, destroying about half an acre of forest. gai and lee were boht too stunned to even yell any thing about the power of youth Tenten displayed. Neji just stared on in awe, not quite sure what he saw but knew it was something to be reconed with in a battle.

Her team mates finaly collected themselves after a few minutes and asked if she could show them that again, Neji almost ordering it. So naturaly, after being asked to show off, she did the exact same thing as before, but this time she snaped her fingers twice. Two large explosions occured mereseconds later, decimating about an acre and a half of the training feild. Instantly gai-sensei and lee went on a rant about the power of youth and took off to do five hundred laps around konoha with an extra two hundred pounds of weight added on. Neji kind of backed away from her, slightly intimidated.

Ed grinned, a verry mischievious grin "see, told ya they work great for intimidation." Tenten just slightly giggled, just like she did when she got them. "Hey, if you want, I could teach you the theory behind how those work later."

"Okay" she replied. Ed then waved to the team and told them he'd catch up with them later. He then headed for the nearest store so he could get a couple bottles of some cheap sake. He purchased his alchahol and headed strait home. when he got in he noticed that it was only a quarter past three in the afternoon, still a tad too early to drink in his oppinion. after placing his booze in the fridge, he decided hed go look for Naruto and give him that spar he asked for.

-3 hours later-

'Whare is he? He couldnt have run off too far.' Ed thaught as he continued searching for Naruto. Finaly he decided hed head over to the ramen shop and get some noodles for dinner. again, no Naruto. After ed ate he finaly went home, finaly giving up on having a spar.

When ed got home he went strait to the fridge, pulled out his cheap booze and took a swig out of the bottle. He was about to take another swig, turn on the tv and sit down, when someone knocked. Grumbling, he answered the door to find none other than Tenten, smiling at him. Ed waved her in snd went to the kitchen. "Hey, want some sake?" he offered as he poked his head out of the kitchen.

"Uh, sure, I guess. dont you have any tea?" she questioned, not quite liking the sound of alchahol, but taking it none the less.

"Nope, no tea. I have tap water and sake, sorry. so, what brings ya over this way?"

"Oh, nothin much. Just wanted to hang out, but i never expected this." she said as she lifted up her small plastic bottle.

"Hehe, yea. Like I said, sorry about that. tap water here isnt even fit for lab rats, so I figured at the verry least its something to drink."

"Oh. makes sense. Any way I was curious about what you said about my staff earlier."

Ed shook his head a little. 'Leave it to here to make a social call about weapons.' "I was thinking ealier that if I made the proper circle and put it on a staff of yours, you might be able to mess with the woods properties and such."

Tenten once again had that far away dreamy look in her eyes at the posibility of a new 'toy'. "But..." he interupted her thaughts "I cant just keep giving you all these things, people will think were an item or something." He said with a smug smile, trying to get a reaction out of here. all she did was sit there and blush a little much to his amusement.

Ed took a drink of his sake and then stuck his tounge out at her. "So, did you bring your staff or what?"

"Oh, right!" she said a little sheepishly as she pulled out a scroll, opened it, bit her finger and swiped som blood across a picture. her staff then poofed into existance and then she handed it to him.

"Ok. before i put this seal on here, do you know how the one on you gloves work?" he asked. he just recieved a blank stare as an answer. Ed decided to go on a long rant, being as this was his 'specialty'. "Well, i dont blame you. My seals are unlike any that anybody around here has seen before. My seals dont actualy seal anything, the just manipulate it. You get it?"

"Uh, kind of, hehe."

"Well, thats good enough, unless you want to studdy in my feild. Hey, can you show me whare your hands would be most of the time?" She got up and did a pose with it. "Thanks." he then went about carving the rather intricate circle onto the shaft. after about 20 minutes of carving he handed it back to her. The two than sat there the rest of the night talking and laughing, usualy over something stupid or mundane. eventualy she bid him good night and him her. after she left he cleaned up a little and then headed for bead, the two small bottles of sake taking their toll.

- 7:30 am next morning-

Ed woke up with yet another hangover. He hobbled out of bed, nearly falling flat on his face and made his way to the bathroom. or more specificly the porcilin altar known as the comode. ten minutes later he was sitting in the shower, slowly scrubbing at his torso. after he was done showering he headed off in the direction of the gate he needed to be at, picking up a bite to eat along the way there.

-9 am-

He met up with anko and they headed out. he had one thaught, and that was that they never said how FUCKING HOT! she was. especialy from behind when she jumps. 


	13. Author note and preview!

Authors note: I'm losing my battle with inspiration whare it concerns this story. No matter what I just cant seem to be able to focus on this story, almost like I'm not supposed to finish it. oh well, that can be decided later.

this preview is for the first chapter of the next story in the series, The Merging.  
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Next Chapter Preview:

"What do you think your doing kid? whats with the picture?" she asked. she stared on as he placed a few peices of jerky and dumped half a cup of water on it. he placed his hands on the circle, there was a poof of smoke and then when the smoke cleared there was two big juicy steaks, fully cooked. she gave him a rather disbelieving look and took a bite from the one handed to her. As she chewed her eyes went wide slightly as she noticed it was seasoned. a small moan of delight came from her throat as she finished her steak, in record time.

"Ok, so we're going whare again?" Ed asked.

"We're going to border of fire and grass"  
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